Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 18, 2004

Sweet Springs, MO
Today we rode from Fayette to Sweet Springs, MO. It was a nice 61 mile ride through some rain and mist and up and down some small rolling hills. The rain never got too bad, although it soaked us completely from head to toe. It was actually kind of fun! For lunch, an elementary school was kind enough to let us eat in their cafeteria while the children were rehearsing for a musical. So it was without doubt one of our more entertaining meals. After lunch it was only another twenty miles until we reached the Methodist Church in Sweet Springs, which I have to say is very sweet. Our hosts drove us over to the public pool where we splashed around for a bit and cleaned ourselves up. A lot of us did bike maintenance when we got back to the church before dinner. We had a potluck dinner again, which was great. Sweet Springs, MO is becoming one of the most memorable and traditional stops along our journey because of the caring people, particularly a nine-year-old girl named Mikalah. She keeps a journal about us and we add to it each year with entries and pictures, and she loves cutting the guys’ hair! I got the first 4K haircut ever, and I hope she continues the tradition for years to come. Thank you Mikalah!!

- Dave

Today was a really great biking day into Sweet Springs, MO, but before we even got biking, we had an AMAZING breakfast provided by the First Baptist Church in Fayette. The men of the church cooked a real, country-style breakfast with biscuits and sausage gravy, breakfast casserole, scrambled eggs, pan-fried toast, sausage, and fruit! I ate way too much, so I was slightly relieved to wait-out a storm with a nap and leave late (around 10 am). It was a short day—only 60 miles—and rainy for most of it, which I liked. The only downside to riding in the rain today was that it was windy and cold as well. The hills were really easy and fun to ride, so the miles flew by. We had lunch (I barely ate anything because I was still feeling breakfast) at an Elementary school in the cafeteria/auditorium while the kids rehearsed their school musical about bugs for us. The rest of the ride was absolutely beautiful, and we got to Sweet Springs in no time. There was a closed road at the end of our route as a result of a flooding creek, but the water wasn’t too deep to ride through. We got to the church around 4 pm and went over to the local pool for a swim. I hadn’t swum in years, so I raced Renee in 50 free style and stayed in for quite a while. It was really relaxing and a nice change from biking. After the pool and showers, we went back to the church to find everybody doing bike maintenance. GREAT!!!! That is what we like to see as trip leaders, so we all worked on our bikes until the AMAZING dinner inside the church. The people of Sweet Springs are soooooo nice and hospitable. Actually, they absolutely spoiled us. The dinner started with tortilla chips and fruit salsa, excellent and fresh guacamole, then continued with a main course of sloppy joes with potatoes au gratin, salad, Watergate salad, etc. Desert was equally amazing, with cowboy cake (sweet potato and pumpkin cake), strawberry shortcake, cookies, cakes, etc. The people were also really fun. After dinner and our short presentation on our group and cancer, we went outside and had a little girl from the church cut our hair. This turns out to be a tradition from past Hopkins 4K trips. Mikalah is only 9 years old, but she shaved “4K” into several of the guys’ heads (including me) and gave some of them racing stripes and mohawks. All of the church people were around us and excited to have us there, and everybody was having a great time laughing and taking pictures as a result of our crazy haircuts. What an excellent day all around!!

- Phil